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MONOGRAPH 

ON 

EDUCATION 









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EN(iLISH 

In the Public Schools 

PATRICK 









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ENGLISH 
In The Public Schools 



jrN. PATRICK, A.M. 

author of 

Lessoins in Language, Lessons in Grammar, Elements 

OF Pedagogics, Pedagogical Pebbles, 

AND The Recitation. 



True ease in wriiiiig eoi/ies from art^ not chance, 

As those move easiest who have learned to dance.— Pope. 




MOUND CITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 

ST. LOUIS, MO. ^.rCBVEO' 



*V b o V O^ c^^ cVU ^^^ 






28628 



CoPYracHT, 1S98, 

BY 

J. N. PATRICK. 



-BECKTOLD— 

PRINTING AND BOOK MFG. CO. 
ST. LOUIS, AtO. 



PREFACE. 



This monograph, like the one on the recitation, has 
been given its present form at the request of many teachers 
who have heard it in teachers' institutes. It was not written 
for the edification of college professors, but for teachers in 
the common schools. 

The limits of this prefatory note do not permit me to ac- 
knowledge, in a more definite manner, my indebtedness to 
those whose suggestions I have used in writing these pages. 
The matter contained in this pamphlet has but slight claims 
to originality. 

St. Louis, Mo., January, 1898. J. N. P. 



iii 



Write, write, write! There is no way to learn to write 
exce^Dt by writing. — Emerson. 

A parrot-like knowledge of inflection and rules has 
ceased to be the goal of linguistic scholarship ; and so far 
as any useful end is concerned, the mere ability to parse 
and analyze an intricate sentence counts for but little. — 

E. W. HuFFCUT, Instructor in Rhetoric, Cornell University. 

Rules and concords no more condition clear expression 
than they determine forcible thinking ; you may parse a boy 
through "The Course of Time " and " Paradise Lost" with- 
out eliciting a spark of feeling or a glint of intelligence. — 

F. C. Woodward, Professor of English, University of South 
Carolina. 

It is constant use and practice that makes good speak- 
ers and writers ; no one ever changed from a bad speaker 
to a good one by applying the rules of grammar to what was 
said ; in order to use English correctly, it is not necessary 
to study English grammar, but the study of grammar is use- 
ful to us because it helps and hastens the process of learning 
good English. — W. D. Whitney, Yale College. 

A pupil may be master of every grammar and rhetoric, 
or every text-book on English literature, and yet be unable 
to express well his thought, or have an intelligent knowledge 
of poetry and prose. The cramming process requires sufifi- 
cient mental activity, but it is activity of a single faculty at 
the expense of others. It forces memory ; does not develop 
power to think or to know. — Harvard Report. 



iv 



ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



Lan§;ua§fe Before Grammaf* Once it was believed that 
the cultivation of language and the study of grammar should 
begin together. Fortunately, that belief is no longer held by 
many teachers. The child should be trained to speak cor- 
rectly from the day that he utters his first complete sen- 
tence. During the whole period of life there is no time when 
one's language may not be cultivated and improved. There 
is a time, however, when the study of grammar has little or 
no value. The rules of grammar are hindrances until the 
pupil can comprehend their application. 

It is unfortunate for both pupil and teacher, that the child 
is not trained in the home to use correct language. A large 
majority of pupils enter school habituated to incorrect forms 
of speech. The child learns the forms of language used by 
his associates. If his associates use correct forms of speech, 
he will unconsciously acquire the habit of using language 
correctly. On the other hand, if his associates use language 
incorrectly, he will unconsciously use the same forms of ex- 
pression. Throughout life, example is the great teacher. 
One good example is worth more than one hundred moral 
precepts. Truly has Lowell written: "An illustration is 
worth more than any amount of discourse." 



6 ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Competency Essential. A teacher should know what he 
is going to teach and how he is going to teach it before he 
begins his work. Scanty knowledge of a subject, and imma- 
ture and indefinite methods of presenting it to a class, can- 
not yield satisfactory results. Teaching that does not lead 
the pupil to see clearly the important principle or fact in the 
lesson and its relation to principles and facts already known 
is mere recitation hearing — a soulless formalism. An ex- 
planation that pupils cannot understand, on account of the 
teacher's scanty knowledge of the subject and the verbose 
and slovenly language used, discourages pupils. To teach 
effectively, the teacher must know his subject, and must use 
clear and concise language in explanations and illustra- 
tions. What a teacher knows only superficially he cannot 
clearly present to others. 

Instruction stimulates or stupefies ; which, depends w^holly 
upon the teacher's knowledge of the subject in hand and his 
method of presenting it. The value of a pupil's school op- 
portunity depends wholly on the kind of teacher in charge 
of the school. The teacher, like the farmer, reaps just 
what he sows. The teacher who teaches well is conscious 
that he knows his subject and that he knows how to present 
it to a class. Conscious knowledge is the mother of enthu- 
siasm and tact, and enthusiasm and tact on the part of the 
teacher beget interest and enthusiasm on the part of the pu- 
pil. The teacher must believe in himself, if he would have 
his pupils believe in him. Inspiration and aspiration are 
born within ; they are the organic forces that develop char- 
acter, and lead others to think, to feel, to do. 



ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 7 

Sound Methods Important* There is no one best 
method of teaching Enghsh which can be successfully ap- 
plied without modification. Limitations and varying con- 
ditions surround every teacher. Among these are the age 
and capacity of the class, the time devoted to the study, the 
number of other studies pursued at the same time, and most 
of all the teacher's equipment for the work. Pupils learn to 
do only by doing. If most of the time now spent in many 
schools in reciting the facts of grammar were spent in ex- 
pressing original thought, it would not be long until the 
average high school graduate could write a correct applica- 
tion for a situation. He cannot do it now, although he has 
studied text-book grammar for years. He has declined 
nouns and pronouns, conjugated verbs, compared adjectives 
and adverbs, imprisoned sentences in diagrams, still he can- 
not correctly describe an event nor state a fact in clean, 
concise English. This fact is not charged against the pupil, 
but against the method of teaching English. The pupil has 
spent years in studying grammar, but has given to the use 
of language little thought. He has recited, but he has not 
created. With a majority of the pupils in the grammar 
grades, the real struggle is not to find answers, but to find 
clear expressions for their statements. 

In language work, the aim of the teacher should be to 
train the pupil to express himself clearly. Fully half the 
time set apart for recitation in language and grammar should 
be used in some form of composition work. There should 
be daily exercises in composing. This does not mean that 
there should be a lengthy composition written every day ; but 



8 ENGLISH IN THE TUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

brief work, based upon the instructions given in some of the 
oral lessons. In the lower grades, much of the pupil's time 
should be spent in constructing sentences that require spe- 
cific uses of the grammatical forms. When a pupil has 
learned a grammatical fact, he should be required to use it 
in original sentences — use gives meaning to learning. In 
many schools, pupils learn much they never know. A pu- 
pil's greatest need is the ability to give clear expression to 
his learning. This power he can acquire in only one way — 
by giving expression to his thoughts orally and with the pen. 
Use gives greater use : this is the one universal law of de- 
velopment — moral, intellectual, and physical. 

The knowledge that a pupil acquires in school will be of 
comparatively little use to society if he be unable to express 
clearly and forcibly his ideas. The most powerful weapon 
in the hands of the teacher, of the minister, of the lawyer, 
of the editor, is a vigorous command of good English. 
Clearness of statement is one distinguishing mark of diifer- 
ence between the cultured and the ignorant. 

It matters not to the pupil whether we have three or four 
modes if he uses the language clearly and forcibly. In the 
study of language, especially the English, theory without 
practice has little or no value. The ability to quote a gram- 
mar from the title page to the end would in no way improve 
the speech of the unthinking. The recitation of gram- 
matical facts will no more make correct speakers and writers 
than the recitation of moral maxims will make good citizens. 
What does the study of text-book rhetoric mean in our high 
schools to pupils who have not acquired a somewhat reflect- 



ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. g 

ive use of words in the grammar schools? It means noth- 
ing. As a large majority of pupils leave school before the 
close of the eighth year, they should have such instruction 
in language and grammar as will best fit them for the duties 
of life. Only through much drill in composition work can 
pupils form the habit of expressing their thoughts correctly, 
clearly, and concisely. 

Many a bright and deserving young man has failed to se- 
cure a desirable position because of his badly-constructed 
letter of application. The average eighth grade pupil can- 
not write a correctly and concisely worded letter, or a clean, 
strong composition on the most familiar subject. He has 
not learned how to give expression to his impressions. He 
needs methodical training in sentence-building, in copying, 
in reproduction, and in writing compositions on familiar 
subjects. The special need of ninety-nine pupils in one 
hundred is not memory recitations in technical grammar, 
but methodical training in the use of good English. The 
study of the dry facts of grammar cannot be interesting or 
profitable to young pupils. The subject is too abstract. 

It is the teacher's duty to make the study of English a 
pleasant and profitable one for pupils. He should encour- 
age, in every way, original and felicitous forms of expres- 
sion, and avoid hampering the natural style of the pupil, if it 
be not absolutely faulty. Education should individualize 
humanity. The teacher should discourage and condemn 
the stilted and bombastic style of the average stump speaker 
and country editor. The pupil should be trained to see 
the beauty of short sentences, of simple words, of simple, 



lO ENGLISH IN THE TUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

strong, idiomatic English. He should be trained to let the 
noun and the verb do the work. He should be trained to 
see the beauty and force of clean, concise sentences — that 
the use of the right word is a mark of culture. Train him 
to see that the same thought may be expressed in many 
ways — that the clearness and force of a sentence depend 
upon a proper arrangement of the grammatical terms and 
freedom from unnecessary words. Lowell says: "The 
secret of force in writing lies not so much in the pedigree 
of nouns and adjectives and verbs, as in having something 
you believe in to say, and making the parts of speech 
vividly conscious of it." 

In most schools, the i)upils spend much time in analyzing 
sentences and in parsing words. Much of the time thus 
spent is wasted. Three score and ten years spent in analyz- 
ing sentences and parsing words would not materially in- 
crease the pupil's vocabulary or develop in him a love for 
literature. The barrenness of the merely formal in the study 
of English is seen the moment the pupil is required to write 
a composition. The formal cannot develop thought power, 
cultivate expression, or inspire purpose. Only the organic 
and the ueal answer the demands of the soul. 

The teacher of English in the common schools should 
ever bear in mind the fact that there are some things that 
every pupil must know in order to express his thoughts 
clearly and forcibly, and that there are many things in gram- 
mar that he does not need to know to use his mother tongue 
correctly. " Half a dozen rules," says De Quincy, " for 
evading the most frequently recurring forms of awkward- 



ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. i i 

ness, of obscurity, of misproportion, and of double mean- 
ing, would do more to assist a writer in practice than vol- 
umes of general disquisition." 

Most school text-books on English grammar are too vo- 
luminous — too learned for common school use The pupil 
loses himself in the unimportant subdivisions — in the discus- 
sions of minor technicalities. He leaves school with his 
head full of crude impressions of the structure of the sen- 
tence and the meaning of the grammatical terms, but with- 
out the ability to express himself clearly. This fact, uni- 
versally acknowledged and lamented by educators every- 
where, is due, not to the pupil's natural stupidity, nor to his 
lack of effort, but to the shotgun methods of the text-books. 

At the beginning of the recitation, a topic should be 
named by the teacher and the pupil required to recite on 
it without question or comment by the teacher. This 
method, // persisted in^ will develop self-confidence, flu- 
ency and readiness of expression. Many questions by the 
teacher interfere with the flow of thought and with its free 
expression. Many teachers ask too many questions — ques- 
tions that annoy and discourage the pupil. Interference by 
the teacher is without doubt the most serious defect of the 
average recitation. 

Imitation and Practice* Accuracy in the use of words 
is acquired through imitation and practice. Excellent 
models should be placed before pupils, and a watchful eye 
kept on their use of language, oral or written. One can 
dislodge the use of incorrect expressions only by a purpose 
to dislodge them, and by a persistent use of correct forms 



12 ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

of speech. The time to correct a pupil's speech is when it 
needs correcting. The only cure for the use of bad Eng- 
lish is revision until the incorrect statement or illustration is 
changed into a correct one. 

In the lower grades, require the pupils daily to copy ales- 
son from their readers. In the first, second, third and 
fourth grades, the pupils acquire correct habits of expres- 
sion by imitating the teacher and by copying from their 
text-books and from the blackboard. The habits of expres- 
sion that a child acquires during the first four years of his 
schooling usually cling to him through life. Children learn 
by example and practice, not by rules and theory. Put 
them to copying as soon as they can write. The purpose of 
this work is to accustom them to correct spelling, punctua- 
tion, and capitalization by unconscious imitation. They will 
also learn how to divide compositions into paragraphs. 
Copying both prose and verse from the works of the best 
authors is valuable work. It cultivates accuracy in the me- 
chanical part of composition, and tends to fix the best forms 
of expression. Insist upon neatness and accuracy in the 
transcriptions. 

Composition. Composition is the one exercise that awak- 
ens a pupil to his highest state of self-activity. True it is that 
no school-work is fraught with more discouragements to the 
teacher. All the mental weaknesses of children, whether 
natural or acquired, discover themselves the moment they 
begin to write anything of their own composition. Errors 
in spelling, capitalization, paragraphing, grammar, and 
rhetoric, are all apt to show themselves in the same compo- 



ENGLISH IN THE TUBLIC SCHOOLS. i^ 

sition. While it is true that the average composition has in 
it many things to discourage, it is equally true that there are 
often to be found evidences of power which more than com- 
pensate for the want of accuracy in technical details. The 
pupil should be led to see that the frequent use of the pen 
under the careful editorial guidance of a skilled writer is 
the only true method of disclosing and removing defects 
which otherwise might never be brought to his knowledge. 
No other method of teaching English will make the correct 
forms of language familiar. 

A pupil should never be required to express, orally or in 
writing, what he does not know. The subject should be 
adapted to the experiences and attainments of the pupil. 
No teacher can draw out of a pupil's mind what is not in it. 
A fourteen-year-old pupil should not be required to write a 
composition on Honesty^ Heroism^ or Charity. If you 
would have your pupils furnish you a specimen of their style, 
you must give them subjects withm their comprehension, 
and, if possible, within their experience. The teacher of 
composition in the common schools should studiously avoid 
all abstract subjects. He should select concrete subjects — 
subjects about which the average pupil knovv^s something, or 
about which he can readily learn something. The material, 
the visible world is the home of the young, al-o of too vast 
a majority of the old. 

Composition should be taught as a means and not as an 
end in itself. It should, therefore, be taught almost exclu- 
sively in connection with such studies as Geography, His- 
tory, Science, and Literature, and not as a separate branch. 



14 ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Pupils ought to reproduce daily in writing the substance of 
their lessons in these studies. In this way the language 
work will serve constantly as a review of the regular work of 
the school. Indeed, all language teaching, as far as the 
mother tongue is concerned, should aim primarily to serve 
as a means of teaching other branches. 

How to teach pupils to write good English is still the most 
important problem of education. No one subject gives 
teachers in all grades of public schools more trouble than 
that of English composition. Why is this so? Why is it 
that such avidity is shown in arithmetic and such reluctance 
in English composition? The reason, though a simple one, 
is not generally understood. In all other subjects the pupil 
occupies the position of a receptacle into which information 
has been poured by one process or another, and from 
which, at least, a part of what has been poured in can be 
pumped out. 

In composition, the pupil ceases to act as a receptacle, and 
is compelled to become a giver rather than a receiver. He 
must become constructive rather than receptive. "Com- 
posing is the supreme effort of the human mind in self-ex- 
pression." Self-expression, next to hope of immortality, is 
the highest yearning of the human spirit. Indeed, it rises 
out of that hope. It is the foundation of all art, from the 
earliest daub of the embryo painter up to architectural 
creations like St. Paul's or the Parthenon. Further, the 
effort at self-expression is of itself the most educative process 
that a human being can exert upon himself. 

The root weakness of most teachinor is the fact that it ends 



ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 1 5 

with impressions. The pupil is not required to assimilate, to 
give meaning to his impressions. He leaves school with his 
mind filled with the raw material of knowledge — a worthless 
load of stuffing. Expression is the soul of education. Every 
growing soul struggles to express itself, to give vent to pent- 
up thought and emotion. Child and adult alike need ex- 
pressional vent. Expression awakens, develops, realizes. 

The pupil must be put into the possession of the raw ma- 
terial for his composition by the teacher. He must have the 
foundation facts given him in the form of an outline. The 
bare facts of an outline do not constitute the matter of the 
composition, but they are essential to it. The pupil can no 
more construct a composition without material than a car- 
penter can build a house without material. Only the impor- 
tant facts or points should be given in the outline. In for- 
mal composition work, the pupil should not be hurried for 
time. Give to every pupil ample tinie to do his best. The 
slowest pupil is often the best thinker in his class. 

The following extract from White's Elements of Peda- 
gogy should be duly considered by every teacher of English 
in the common schools : 

"Instruction without practice cannot impart skill, and 
hence can not make an artist. The old-time attempt to 
teach the art of using good English, by means of technical 
grammar, is an illustration of this error. This attempt was 
based on the false notion that skill in speech and writing 
is a necessary result of a knowledge of the rules of language 
— an error still too common in American schools, and es- 
pecially in elementary schools whose pupils are too young 
to apprehend or apply abstract principles in any art. 



i6 ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

"The stupid custom of teaching formal analysis and pars- 
ing before practical composition richly deserves the ridicule 
now heaped upon it ; but is there not evidence of a tendency 
to the opposite extreme? It now looks as if there would 
soon be an opportunit}' to laugh at the equally futile attempt 
to teach the art of correct speech by haphazard, cut-feed 
language lessons, some of which are about as mechanical 
as the filling of a basket with chips, and result in about the- 
same kind of skill. The function of language is to express 
thought, and no exercise in the use of language can impart 
much skill that does not begin with the awakening of 
thought and end with its correct expression." 

Avoid Extreme Criticism. In correcting faulty compo- 
sitions, two extremes present themselves. A teacher may 
criticise too severely and thereby discourage the pupils, or 
he may criticise too leniently and thereby confirm them in 
glaring faults. Over-criticism by a teacher discourages pu- 
pils. Technical distinctions in regard to detail weaken the 
impressions made by the important principles and facts. A 
distinguished teacher of English in one of our colleges says: 
" Certain principles should be kept constantly in mind. In 
the first place, it is to be remembered that a style may be fai 
removed from the standard of which the teacher most ap- 
proves, and yet be a very excellent and forcible style. In 
other words, I would make a plea for individuality in style." 
Gibbon says: " The style of an author should be the image 
of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the 
fruit of exercise." 

Any method of criticism which hampers or destroys this 



ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 17 

natural expression is faulty and often fatal. I would not be 
understood, however, as condemning the criticism of those 
features of a pupil's diction which are manifestly vicious. 
Wherever a pupil offends in any way against the established 
canons of good writing, he should be corrected. The com- 
position must be examined and the needed corrections indi- 
cated. The pupil should be led to discover his own mis- 
takes and correct them. Only the more important errors 
should be corrected in any one composition. In order, how- 
ever, that this may not lead to carelessness on the part of the 
pupil, instead of wasting time in correcting mistakes made 
through carelessness, the teacher should hand his exercise 
back to him without correction and require him to write it 
over again, and again if necessary. If only the best work 
the pupil can do is accepted, he will outgrow many of his 
mistakes without having them corrected by the teacher. 
Clearness in speaking and in writing is acquired only by 
thinking and writing. It is an intellectual quality and can 
be cultivated in the common schools. 

The nature and extent of the criticism must depend on the 
age of the pupil and the grade of work that he is doing. 
With pupils in the first five grades, the criticism should not 
extend at first beyond the faults of the individual sentence. 
Until the pupil can properly construct a sentence, over-criti- 
cism would discourage him. Require the pupil to express 
the same thought in as many different ways as he can invent. 
Write on the blackboard the individual sentences that ex- 
hibit the most flagrant violations of the laws of good English. 
Discuss and correct the faulty sentences in class recitation. 



1 8 ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

School children are usually in a healthy state, morally and 
intellectually. They are generally optimistic in their views 
of life. A word of encouragement to the average pupil is 
worth more to him in his struggles to become than a volume 
of pessimistic cant about the natural sinfulness and perverse- 
ness of his nature. Train him to recognize the responsibili- 
ties of life, but do not close every school exercise with a 
pointless moral lecture. 

An occasional exercise in correcting faulty forms of ex- 
pression is valuable, notwithstanding the fashionable cry, 
" No false syntax." The correct form should be substituted 
by the pupil for the incorrect one, and the reason given 
for the change. A knowledge of syntactical rules will assist 
the learner in dislodging incorrect forms of expression and 
in substituting correct ones. The facts of grammar should 
aid him in undoing habit. 

I am absolutely at a loss to understand on what principle 
some teachers object to the introduction of faulty sentences 
into text-books on comiposition and grammar. Syntactical 
errors can be corrected on fixed principles ; and as the 
learner is very sure to meet with numerous examples of faulty 
sentences, both in conversation and in reading, it seems 
desirable that he should have some practice in the correction 
of those mistakes that are of the most frequent occurrence. 
The well-balanced teacher will not make a hobby of false 
syntax, or of any other phase of language study, but will use 
it to point out and correct the most common errors of ex- 
pression in the daily recitations of his pupils. 

The teacher should use some system of abbreviations in 



ENGLISH IN THE TUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



19 



marking the composition for correction by the pupil. The 
following list will be found useful and probably adequate in 
the grammar grades : 
A. Ambiguity. Gr. Bad Grammar. 

C. Condense. O. Orthography. 

Cap. Capitalization. 1[. Paragraph required. 

D. Strike out. No 1[. No paragraph required. 
Technical Gramman Formal technical grammar should 

not be commenced until the pupil can think into use its 
laws ; then it should be taught inductively from the facts of 
the language. In teaching language, induction and deduc- 
tion must go hand in hand ; examples must lead up to defi- 
nitions, and definitions must be applied to examples. The 
premature study of grammar, and the too minute correction 
of errors of spelling and grammar, have the effect of arous- 
ing a degree of self-consciousness when writing that seriously 
interferes with the flow of thought. 

In what way does the mere ability to recite definitions and 
rules cultivate the art of expression or the ability to reason? 
A text-book knowledge of rules cannot increase the flow of 
thought nor dislodge incorrect habits of expression. Mere 
rules cannot correct an inveterate habit. A pupil may quote 
a grammar or a rhetoric from the title page to the end and 
not be able to write a page of clean, strong English. Ample 
evidence that this last statement is true is on file in the office 
of every county superintendent in the country. 

A pupil cannot acquire a correct use of language by study- 
ing technical grammar. Until he can think intelligently and 
use words reflectively, text-book grammar has little or no 



20 ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

meaning to him. A pupil cannot acquire the art of expres- 
sion by merely reciting the laws that govern the expression 
of thought. The study of English grammar, at any age, is 
only a help to the mastery of good English. Thinking is the 
only remedy for slovenly language ; revision the only cure 
for verbosity. The ability to speak and write English with 
accuracy and effectiveness is the only true measure of a 
practical knowledge of English grammar. Teachers should 
remember that any method of teaching English which does 
not enable a pupil to express his ideas clearly and forcibly 
is a failure. The use of good English is not acquired by 
repeating rules, analyzing sentences, and parsing words. 
Habit cannot be overcome by rules. Rules merely state the 
well-established facts of grammar. The application of the 
rules depends entirely upon the learner. 

When the pupil understands the forms and the uses of the 
grammatical terms, and can construct sentences requiring 
specific uses of them, he will be interested and advanced by 
his study of grammar. He must think original ideas into 
correct forms. In language study, thinking is more impor- 
tant than memorizing. Right thinking and right feeling are 
safer guides to correct expression than the rules of grammar 
and rhetoric. "Inaccurate writing is generally the expres- 
sion of inaccurate thinking." Clear expression is born of 
clear thinking. Definite convictions usually clothe them- 
selves in brief, clear language. Grammar and rhetoric are 
helpful only to the pupil that can think. 

The study of technical grammar below the seventh and 
eighth grades is a sinful waste of time. Every intelligent 



ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 2 1 

teacher of English in our schools will endorse this statement. 
The pupils are "passed," and present themselves at the 
high school with a rhetoric in hand, but cannot put together 
ten consecutive sentences correctly. Bacon saw this truth 
when he said: "Scholars come too soon and too unripe 
to logic and rhetoric — arts fitter for graduates than for 
children and novices." 

The pupil should be thoroughly familiar with the primary 
facts of language structure before he is permitted to begin 
the study of technical grammar or rhetoric. He cannot be 
too thoroughly impressed with the fact that the actual use of 
the grammatical terms is the only way of acquiring a correct 
use of them.. He should be thoroughly drilled in the proxi- 
mate analysis of sentences. In the grammar grades, frequent 
exercises in separating sentences into subject and predicate 
will prove valuable. This form of thought analysis will soon 
train pupils to see, at a glance, the two parts of a sentence and 
to get the important thought. For these exercises, the best 
selections in the school readers should be chosen. The sen- 
tence is the unit of all composition, and the pupil should 
early learn to recognize the two cardinal elements of its 
structure, and to group about them all other words and 
phrases as adjuncts. He should be able, at a glance, to 
separate a sentence into its two parts — subject and predicate. 
A pupil should have a somewhat reflective use of words 
in the expression of original thought before he is permitted 
to begin the study of the ultimate analysis of sentences. 
The rules for the logical arrangement of the grammatical 
terms, the rules of syntax, and the definitions of the figures 



22 ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

of speech, mean little or nothing to a pupil who cannot think 
in clean language. The science of grammar can be learned 
from text-books ; the art of expressing thought clearly and 
forcibly can be learned in only one way — by using lan- 
guage reflectively in the expression of original thought. 

The ability to use language clearly and forcibly is a growth, 
and, like every other growth, depends upon organic energy, 
purpose, and practice. Every one needs the ability to use 
his mother-tongue correctly. Few need to know the techni- 
calities of grammar. When we reflect, that of every hundred 
boys and girls now studying grammar in the public schools, 
not more than one or two of them will ever need a technical 
knowledge of syntactical relations, it seems needlessly cruel 
to compel the great majority of pupils to spend much of their 
school-life in studying technical grammar. 

Why, then, is English grammar taught in the schools? It 
is taught because it helps the pupil to dislodge the bad Eng- 
lish he acquired in early life. The study of grammar ren- 
ders the structure of the language obvious and its forms famil- 
iar. Without some knowledge of the grammar of a language, 
the finer distinctions and excellences of its literature are 
lost. It is taught on account of its disciplinary value. 

Require Good English. By good English is meant the 
English used by the best writers — by the cultivated and 
refined. It is not governed by a book of arbitrary rules. 
No power yet exerted has been able to establish a fixed and 
immovable standard of written English. The style of writ- 
ten and spoken English varies. Language is but an instru- 
ment, a tool, and changes as the users of it change. No 



ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



23 



one to-day indulges the literary style of Shakespeare's day. 
There is no infallible supreme court to decide whether this 
or that expression is faultless English. The present is, in- 
deed, a state of encouraging unrest in regard to methods 
of teaching English. Much experiment is yielding some 
success. Methods of instruction are becoming more illus- 
trative and real year by year. 

Every recitation affords the teacher an opportunity to 
train his pupils in the use of good English. Correct methods 
of instruction do not permit the pupil to disregard in any 
recitation the true end and aim of education — the cultiva- 
tion of the power of expression. The method of the teacher 
should keep the pupil constantly on his guard in all he says 
during the recitation. The pupil should be required to ex- 
press, in his own language, the important facts and princi- 
ples of the lesson. The pupil is not trained by cramming 
his memory with the language of text-books. Culture is not 
a gift ; it is a progressive development, the result of the 
mind's own activity. 

The method of the recitation should compel the pupil to 
express his thoughts and to state text-book facts in the 
choicest language that he can command. Exact teaching 
persistently demands the very best effort of the pupil in all 
he says or does in the class-room ; exact teaching compels 
the pupil to realize somewhat of himself in every effort to ex- 
press his thoughts or feelings. Method that compels the pu- 
pil to do his very best in all he attempts to do, is not only the 
practical in education, it is the philosophical also. Methodi- 
cal persistence on the part of the teacher is the only kind 



24 



ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



of persistence that will establish correct habits of thought 
and speech on the part of the pupil. In the recitation, the 
pupil should be required to revise his verbose and slovenly 
statements until he changes them into concise and clean 
ones. He should be required to revise every ungrammat- 
ical sentence until he changes it into good English. Nor 
are these requirements sufficiently exacting. A sentence 
may be gramatically correct and yet be a faulty sentence. 
Good English consists in expressing thought in language that 
cannot be misunderstood. A sentence that can easily be 
construed to mean more than one thing is not good English. 

A methodical study of the primary meaning and correct 
use of words should constitute a part of the pupil's daily task 
during the whole of his school life. An unabridged diction- 
ary and a book of synonyms should always be within the 
reach of every teacher and student of English. A knowl- 
edge of the correct forms of language avails but little with- 
out the command of a vocabulary sufficient for the dress of 
the thought to be expressed. The teacher should use every 
opportunity to enlarge the pupil's vocabulary. He should 
call the pupil's attention to the choice between two words 
to express a certain meaning. The purpose of this form of 
word study is to develop a discriminating sense of the fitness 
of a word to express the exact meaning intended. 

In English, sound methods of instruction compel the pu- 
pil to study the structure of the sentence by using the sen- 
tence in the expression of original thought. The real 
teacher not merely instructs ; he trains the pupil in all that 
tends to develop in him an independent personality. The 



ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 25 

routine school-keeper neither instructs nor trains his pupils. 
The real teacher is a leader ; the routine school-keeper an 
obstacle. The real teacher stimulates mental activity ; the 
routine school-keeper stupefies the mental powers. 

Proximate Analysis* In the proximate analysis of the 
most complex sentence, we find only four principal gram- 
matical terms — noun-terms, adjective-terms, verb-terms, 
and adverb-terms. 

By a grammatical terin is meant any 7uord^ phrase, ox 
clause that performs a distinct office in the structure of a 
sentence. The proximate analysis of a few sentences will 
show the youngest and v/eakest teacher that the ?wun,\.\\Q 
adjective, and the adverb enter into the structure of sen- 
tences, as ivords^ 7\.'~> phrases, and as cla^iscs, and that the 
predicate is a single verb or a verb-phrase. 

Noun-Teirns* A noun is a word used as a name. A 
noun-ierm is a word or group of related words that does the 
work of a noun. The noun-term is an object conception. 
The mind regards it as a thing, 

Adjective-Terms* An adjective is a word used to limit 
the meaning of a noun. An adjective-to^n is a word or 
group of related Avords that does the work of an adjective. 
The adjective-term is a quality conception. The mind re- 
gards it as a descriptive or limiting term. 

Verb-Terms, A verb is a word used to assert something 
of a person or thing. A verb-term is a word or group of 
related words that does the work of a verb. The verb-term 
asserts an attribute of the subject. 

Adverb-Terms. An adverb is a word used to modify the 



26 ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. An 
adverh-terin is a word or group of related words that does 
the work of an adverb. The adverb-term expresses an at- 
tribute of an attribute. 

The preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection re- 
quire but brief mention. Prepositions are relation words. 
Conjunctions connect words, phrases, clauses, and sen- 
tences. Interjections do not enter into the construction of 
sentences. These three parts of speech are not considered 
as significant word-forms. 

Uses of the Gfammatical Terms. A noun-term may be 
used as the subject of a verb, as the object of a verb, as the 
complement of a copulative verb, as the object of a partici- 
ple, as the object of an infinitive, as the object of a prepo- 
sition, and as an appositive. 

An adjective-term may be used to limit the subject of a 
verb, the object of a verb, substantive complement of a cop- 
ulative verb, or a noun in any other part of the sentence. 

A verb-term may be used as grammatical predicate only. 

An adverb-term may be used to modify a verb-term, an 
adjective, or another adverb. 

The 7iwrd-form of a grammatical term is a single signifi- 
cant word. 

IhQ phrase-for?n of a grammatical term consists of a prep- 
osition or a participle combined with a significant word or 
group of related words used as a single part of speech. The 
phrase-form of a grammatical term is always a noun, an ad- 
jective, or an adverb. The mind grasps and uses a phrase 
as a single part of speech. 



ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 27 

The clause-form of a grammatical term is a dependent 
sentence. It does the work of a noun, an adjective, or an 
adverb. Like the phrase-form, the mind grasps and uses a 
clause as a single part of speech. 

It is believed that these general terms simplify the facts of 
English grammar. The pupil passes at once from the par- 
ticular terms noun, adjective, verb, and adverb, to the gen- 
eral terms — noun-term, adjective-term, verb-term, and ad- 
verb-term — to the terms embracing all the forms of the 
grammatical elements. 

Origin of the Parts of Speech, The limits of this mon- 
ograph will allow only a word in regard to the origin of the 
parts of speech, and the classification of sentences with re- 
gard to their use and structure. 

A thought is the conclusion of the mind in which con- 
cepts are connected, one as a subject, the other as a predicate. 
As every thought is the alTfirmation of some attribute belong- 
ing to a subject, it follows that each judgment unites an at- 
tribute to a subject, and that a sentence must contain words 
that express these elements in the thought. Some ideas are 
subjects ; words used to express these are nouns and pro- 
nouns; other ideas are attributes of objects ; words used to 
express these are adjectives ; other ideas are attributes of at- 
tributes ; words used to express these are adverbs. When 
an attribute is asserted of a subject, the word or words used 
to make the assertion is a verb. 

Foundation Facts. The teacher of English grammar 
should bear in mind the following facts : 

In the English language, a word does not belong exclu- 



28 ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

sively to a single class or part of speech. The part of speech 
to which a word belongs in a particular sentence depends 
upon its use in that sentence. That is, the same form of a 
word may do the work of several parts of speech. The 
master-key that unlocks every profitable system of teaching 
grammar is iherefoie^ not because. In English the power of 
any word and its influence in the sentence are rarely depend- 
ent on its form ; its use and influence depend almost wholly 
upon its logical relation to the context. What part of speech 
a word is cannot be determined at sight, but only by its con- 
nections and dependence. Young teacher, this is an im- 
portant fact and pupils should be led to see it clearly in the 
primary grades. 

Illustration: In the sentence, "Black is a color," the 
word black is the subject of the sentence, therefore^ it is a 
noun. In the sentence, "John is a black boy," the word 
black limits a noun, therefore., it is an adjective. In the sen- 
tence, " Black my shoes," the word black expresses action, 
therefore., it is a verb. Edwin A. Abbott, author of the excel- 
lent little book. How to Tell the Parts of Speech, says: 
"The fundamental principle of English grammar may be 
stated with little exaggeration as being this, that any word 
may be used as any part of speech." A pupil should be 
first taught to see what a word does in the sentence, then to 
infer what part of speech it is. The important thing for the 
pupil to determine is the function and not the name of the 
word, What is said here of words as parts of speech applies 
with equal force to phrases and clauses, for they do the work 
of single parts of speech. 



ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 29 

If we place the possessive form of nouns with the limiting 
adjectives, the noun has but one case-form — the nomina- 
tive. It varies for case only to denote possession. 

Personal pronouns have fixed forms for different uses — 
number-forms, person-forms, gender-forms, and case-forms. 
These forms should be mastered and their uses exhibited in 
original sentences. 

The changes in the form of the verb to correspond to 
changes in its subject are very limited. With the exception 
of the verb to be in the indicative mode, present and past 
tenses, singular number, there are but few changes in the 
form of the English verb to denote person, number, tense, 
mode, or voice. 

The adjective keeps the same form whether joined to a 
singular or plural noun. It is inflected to show degree only. 
Most adverbs are derived from adjectives and take the same 
inflection. An average seventh grade pupil should learn all 
there is of inflection in English in one month. The pupil 
should master what little there is of inflection before he 
enters the high school. He should be put through a severe 
course of training in the use of the important inflections; 
he should be required to illustrate his knowledge of the 
subject in original sentences. 

The Sentence. In structure, the English sentence is so 
simple that a few well-illustrated talks or lessons should leave 
with an average seventh or eighth grade pupil a clear idea 
of the organic forms and uses of the grammatical terms. 
Our language is almost grammarless. A learner is not con- 
fused with the forms of words which determine relations. 



30 



ENGLISH IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



The text-book grammar of our language is easily acquired, 
but the mastery of the sentence is the work of a life-time. 

Logically, a sentence consists of but two parts — a subject 
and a predicate. The subject is that part of the sentence 
about which something is said ; the predicate is that part of 
the sentence that expresses what is said about the subject. 

The kind of thought to be expressed determines the struc- 
ture of the sentence that expresses it. A single, simple 
thought is expressed by a simple sentence ; a complex 
thought, by a complex sentence ; consecutive, coordinate 
thought by a compound sentence. The kind of sentence 
describes the mental state. The mind of man is a real being 
governed by laws evolved by its own activity. 

With regard to use, the form of the sentence depends 
primarily upon the relations between the writer and reader. 

If the writer desires to convey to the reader a fact or a 
truth, he uses the declarative form of the sentence ; if he 
wishes to elicit information, he uses the interrogative form 
of the sentence ; if he wishes the reader to do something, he 
uses the imperative form of the sentence ; if he wishes to 
express strong feeling or emotion, he uses the exclamatory 
form of the sentence. 

Disciplinary Value. Until recently the disciplinary value 
of the study of English was questioned by a large majority 
of the professional teachers. This fact is, perhaps, the 
reason why the study is not now receiving the attention in 
the common schools that it so clearly deserves. Strange, 
indeed, it is that the disciplinary value of the study of a 
language which introduces the pupil to the finest body of 



ENGLISH IN THE TUBLIC SCHOOLS. 31 

literature in the world was ever questioned by teachers of 
average intelligence. English is comparatively an unin- 
flected language. In this respect it has a decided advan- 
tage over the highly inflected languages in the fact that it 
requires less of formalism and cramming than they require. 
The mind is neither strengthened nor enriched by cramming 
it with the formal inflections of the dead languages. The 
study of the mere forms of a language deadens the mental 
faculties. 

Only few forms are found in English, and these are 
easily learned as a part of the content of the expression. 
English is primarily a logical language, and secondarily a 
formal language. Logic and position determine relations ; 
hence the disciplinary value of the study. In English mem- 
ory is subordinated to reason. If the language is taught as 
a logical language, the pupil will not only learn to use it 
correctly but understandingly. The small number of syn- 
tactical forms in English compared to those in the highly 
inflected languages shows the value of English as a means 
of mental training over the so-called classical languages. 

English is the most analytical of languages. Its sentence 
structure is logical, not formal. The study of the highly in- 
flected languages has to do chiefly with words ; the study of 
English, with grammatical terms as wholes. Parsing has to 
do with v/ords as parts of speech ; logical or thought analysis, 
with the grammatical terms as units. With this form of lan- 
guage-study, the inquiring pupil is delighted. The study of 
English for mental training will yet take its place along with 
mathematics and science. English offers the only practical 
linguistic training for the mass of our people. 







2 



